Insurance companies always ask you this, but where do they draw the line?
I am certain they want to know about the hot cam or chip, but what about the alloys or tow bar, or even the spoiler?
Also, where do you stand if the last owner has fitted something you don't know about because he didn't mention it, then it is 'discovered' following an accident?
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I go for the bore them stupid approach.
That way they can never complain you never told them.
Some companies are modification friendly anyway and you'll often be surprised at what you can do without extra cost. But, none of my modifications make it more saleable, and are not the sort of thing you can take off and sell. That is often the consideration rather than reasonable performance gains.
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Anything that makes the car perform better (brakes, suspension, engine etc), anything that makes the car more expensive to repair (like alloys) or anything that makes the car more attractive to theft (like alloys or spoiler)
All are modifications and an excuse not to pay out.
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So given that the average boy racers asthetic modifications make the car no more desireable to theft - infact most look so awful they have the secondary effect of acting as additional security - do they get a discount? ;)
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If the previous owner fitted something you didn't know about, even if it wasn't anywhere in the service history then they'll refuse to pay out. I had this argument with a certain company when I discovered my car had been chipped. I told them when I found, they then cancelled my policy and said the policy would have been void anyway. So much for honesty! Not that an assessor who looked at the car later (some fool drove into me not long after I changed companies) even asked about mods.
I asked them how was I supposed to know when I had done my best to find out about the car. The garage that sold it clearly said to me several times that the car had not been chipped. Nothing in the history said it had been chipped either. Insurance companies are weasels and will avoid paying out if they can. They then complain about the amount of fraud by customers who are essentially treating the companies with the contempt they deserve!
Liverpool Victoria/Frizzell used to be unbelievably blaze about mods and just charged a flat fee for a modded car. They seem to be cracking down on them now.
There isn't this rubbish with house insurance. You don't find you only have your house put back to it's original contemporary decor if it is destroyed completely; it gets put back to how it was before the loss. You don't hear people not getting out their entire payout as they have fitted a non standard front door or painted in the inside a non approved colour!
teabelly
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Just to back up teabelly on how silly it is,
My mate has an M reg VW Polo. Nothing special. No spoilers - in fact - nothing other than standard. He bought the car and it had alloys on. Not naming names but none of the big insurance companies would insure him. What am I saying - NO insurance companies would insure him because of the alloys.
He had to buy standard wheels and there wasn't a problem.
Complete madness.
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Adam
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The Company I know about gives points to various modifications e.g. Alloys = 5 points, spoiler = 7, go faster stripes = 3. A certain number of points is allowable for each insurance group and age of policy holder. Depending on how many points over you are they will charge either an additional premium or refuse cover.
Chris M
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Which company is that? How do they point score proper mods ie things that make the car quicker rather than just looking nice?
teabelly
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NO insurance companies would insure him because of the alloys
Perhaps they assumed that because of the alloys, it was a Jack-the-lad's car? Or were they afraid that the alloys would make it a more tempting target for thieves?
Frustrating for him, but not necessarily daft for inurers.
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I really wonder of Bob the Unemployed Car Theiving Scumbag would nick a Polo he'd otherwise not have bothered with becuase it had a set of cheap alloys.
Even worse is the fact you often pay MORE to insure a car with, say, alloys, but if they get nicked AFTER you've paid more they'll only replace them with the standard wheels!
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I really wonder of Bob the Unemployed Car Theiving Scumbag would nick a Polo he'd otherwise not have bothered with becuase it had a set of cheap alloys.
I don't know Bob, but I do know that his colleagues round my way used to regularly nick my neigbour's old Astras (so regularly that it was a surprise to see it at home). Each time it was found, the alloy wheels had gone (and they seemed to get replaced with similar).
There's no shortage of old Astras to nick, so there wasn't much point in coming all the way up the hill to nick this one unless the alloys were part of the attraction.
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<<......... M reg VW Polo...... had alloys on.......none of the big insurance companies would insure him. <<......NO insurance companies would insure him because of the alloys.
My insurer, CIS, doesn't make a drama out of ANYTHING. I can heartily recommend them ~ I have been insured with them for 40 years. Everything straightforward and above board. They work on a system that allocates points for every factor involved. They add all the points up, and from that they find the appropriate premium in their table of premiums against total points. At one time, if you obtained their prospectus (which included the table) you could calculate the premium yourself.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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>>Frustrating for him, but not necessarily daft for inurers.<<
Of course it isn't. Nothing insurers do is daft....from their point of view anyway. How do you think they make money?
My gripe is with the fact it's a legal requirement yet it cost me my entire student loan to insure for one year TPFT or they stipulate ridiculous things such as no alloys. As an aside, the car was Third Party only and one might argue it would handle better with more solid wheels.
I may check out CIS in June L'escargot.
Thanks,
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Adam
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Just a quick note to echo L'escargot's point about CIS. I have always used them for car insurance, and I recommend them highly. Straightforward, with fair pricing -- none of the tricks, such as raising your premium after the first year because in the hope that you willl be too lazy to switch.
Best of all, their default policies are not restricted to named drivers, so you avoid all the hassle of having to add others temporarily to your insurance if you want to share the driving or lend your car.
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Follow up to Adam's mates Polo story.
Used to run a base model 3 door diesel 205, once a driving school car. Previous owner had replaced the manky old steering wheel with one from a scrapped 205GTi. All else as it left the factory.
At least one well known company refused to quote.
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I remember someone with a basic Austin Metro in the 1980s it had as standard one foglight in the bumper on the right-hand-side and a blanking plate on the left side of the bumper. They bought another light and fitted it to the left as on the higher models, and the insurance classed this as a modification and refused to pay after an accident.
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With all the cost involved it does make you wonder if the young chavster in his modified Corsa/Saxo with modded lights, lowered suspension, spoiler, body kit etc really is insured!
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Something that has long puzzled me. Makes it an even more compelling reason for not risking being hit by one.
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